QAnon is Spreading in Churches. These Pastors are Trying to Stop It

Video from CNN

"Two pastors on opposite sides of the country, one dangerous problem: QAnon spreading in their congregation. CNN Business' Donie O'Sullivan reports on how they're trying, and often failing, to stop the lies." from video introduction.

"Something disturbing has happened with evangelicals in this country, where we have become prone to conspiracies and believing the worst about our enemies, where we end up placing the Republican Party and ourselves as Americans first before true Christianity,” said Rice, 39, who has led his Baptist church for six years and doesn’t identify with either major party." from the article: QAnon and other conspiracy theories are taking hold in churches. Pastors are fighting back

"There are a few possible reasons.

First, QAnon a logical extension of the culture war, providing real plot and vocabulary to the “us vs. them” model that became popular with the rise of the Moral Majority. QAnon codifies the mistrust of science, “big government” and celebrity into a real (if slippery) system.

Secondly, as evangelicalism becomes more of a secularized collective, QAnon rejuvenates it with new religious energy, providing a shared sense of secret knowledge to bring communities together and an assurance that everything is going to work out alright in the end. In a way, QAnon provides a political spin on end-times theology; a peek at the end of the book to provide confidence that the bad things happening now won’t last forever.

Finally, QAnon isn’t necessarily as crazy as it sounds. It’s undoubtedly true that powerful, immoral people do have an alarming amount of control and they do get away a lot of bad things. Look at the story of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who had connections to powerful politicians on both sides of the aisle. Look at Roger Stone. Look at the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, who deliberately downplayed concerns about Oxycontin as the opioid crisis surged." from the article: Why Are So Many Christians Falling for QAnon?